May 15, 2024
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A woman was assaulted by an intruder who entered an office building at 211 N. 13th St. on July 5, 2022. After filing a lawsuit against the building's landlord, the parties agreed to a $6 million settlement.
The owner of a Center City office building reached a $6 million settlement with a woman who was sexually assaulted two years ago when a man entered the property unauthorized and took the stairs to her eighth-floor law firm. In her civil lawsuit, the woman had argued the building's security protocols failed to protect her from the attack.
The robbery and sexual assault occurred July 5, 2022, at 211 N. 13th St., a nine-story building that leases offices. Around 2:15 p.m., a 49-year-old man, later identified as Willie Harris, walked into the building through the front entrance as another person was leaving the property, investigators said. Harris went unnoticed by a security guard in the lobby as he entered the building's stairwell.
Harris went to the eighth floor and went into the unlocked office of a law firm, where the 22-year-old woman was alone at the time, police said. Harris ordered the woman to stay seated as he searched for valuables. The woman offered Harris her headphones and earrings to get him to leave, investigators said, but Harris became angry and began to choke and beat her before raping her.
The sexual assault was interrupted when Harris heard one of the woman's co-workers returning to the office from lunch, authorities said. Harris took the same stairwell down to the lobby and left the building through the front door, again going unnoticed by the security guard, according to the lawsuit.
Harris was arrested two days later in Washington Township, New Jersey, after he had been spotted several times in Gloucester County following the assault. Police posted surveillance images from the Center City office building on social media, prompting a nurse at a Jefferson Washington Township Hospital to recognize Harris as a recently discharged patient.
Harris was convicted of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, burglary, robbery and related offenses. He was charged with rape but was not convicted. He is still awaiting sentencing.
The lawsuit was filed against the landlord, 211 N. 13th Street Associates, LP, and three related entities in March 2023. The complaint contended that the landlord was negligent of providing security measures that would have stopped an intruder from gaining access to the building.
At the time of the incident, the building required a key card to enter the locked front door and also had a call box that guests could use to be buzzed in by the security guard on duty. The security guard's desk in the lobby was positioned without a full view of the front door or the stairwell that Harris used, according to the lawsuit.
The only other way the guard might have noticed Harris was by watching a monitor with a live feed of the building's security cameras, the suit said. There also was no buzzer, alarm or other feature to alert the guard whenever the front door was open. The lobby contained signs stating that “all visitors must sign in the logbook and show identification if requested," the suit said.
The complaint argued that the building should have had stronger measures to prevent unauthorized people from entering. A barrier door in the stairwell that offers access to the building's nine floors also should have been locked, the suit said.
The landlord did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the settlement on Wednesday morning.
The woman was represented by Philadelphia-based personal injury law firm Kline & Specter.
“Our client’s life has been forever changed by this brutal crime, which happened during business hours at work where she felt safe,” attorney Lorraine Donnelly said. “But for the negligent security of the landlord and their security guard, this brutal attack would not have occurred. We hope that landlords in our city and elsewhere will realize the importance of having reasonable security to protect their tenants and employees, including from criminal acts of intruders. Our client will have a lifetime of healing from the scars of this avoidable tragedy.”
